ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM :: Blog

Dr. Lauren Onkey, vice president of education and public programs at the Rock Hall

second photo caption: ACL was designated a rock and roll landmark on October 1, 2009.

The Rock Hall’s Landmark Series designates historic rock and roll landmarks around the United States that are essential to tell the story of rock and roll music.

There are currently nine sites including the Whisky-a-Go-Go in Los Angeles where the Doors were resident performers; King Records in Cincinnati, a prominent American record label started in the 40s, The Crossroads in Clarksdale, Mississippi and the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa . Five sites are located in the Cleveland area and include Brooklyn High School, the location Elvis played his first concert north of the Mason-Dixon line and WJW Radio, home to Deejay Alan Freed who popularized the term “rock and roll.”

On Friday, October 2nd, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum made its 10th Landmark dedication at the studio of Austin City Limits in Austin, Texas. Now in its 35th year, the show is the longest-running music program on television. A number of Rock Hall staff traveled to Austin for the dedication.

Executives Jam to Be Crowned Best Corporate Band at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before Celebrity Judges Tommy Lee of Motley Crüe, Jeff Carlisi of .38 Special, and Antoinette Follett of Making Music Magazine

Year after year, the FORTUNE Battle event is indicative of how passionate people are about music. A lot of talent exists in the world. Not all of it makes it to a record label or an internet site. These people have chosen some path other than rock and roll, but still have talent and passion for the music.

On Friday and Saturday, October 2nd and 3rd, 8 qualifying bands and their fans from the two regional competitions in Los Angeles and Nashville converged on Cleveland to participate in the 9th annual Fortune Corporate Battle of the Bands event at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. The bands this year traveled from Kansas, Utah, California, Iowa, New Jersey, Tennessee and Mississippi in hopes to win the crown.

The weekend began with the Gibson Tune Up Party at the House of Blues on Friday night featuring Jeff Carlisi of .38 Special and Lee Roy Parnell playing with Dixie Peach. The band played their ...

Had a great visit with some old (relatively speaking) friends of the Museum, Hanson. These guys are incredible music lovers and self-described music geeks. They first toured the museum almost 10 years ago when they had their break-out record. Since then they’ve been back several times. Yesterday they were doing a short performance and signing of their new book. Then they came down to our offices and we had a conversation about how much they love classic rock and the artists from the 50s like Chuck Berry. In turn, it led to an interesting discussion about an artist who has a lot of influence on them, Leon Russell. They wanted to know about the nominating process because they know I’m on the committee. I explained to them that Leon is an tremendously gifted musician, singer, producer, etc. and really qualifies in two categories – Performer and Sidemen. In fact, during the past year, we received numerous communications from fans and inductees and others lobbying for his induction in either of these categories. We spent some time talking about his varied and long ...

This Friday, October 2 at Noon ET the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum will be live-streaming from KLRU-TV’s Austin City Limits studio in Austin, Texas.

The Rock Hall is officially designating the ACL studio as an historic rock and roll site as a part of the Museum’s Landmark Series. The studio is the home of the groundbreaking television series that uniquely represents more than three decades of some of rock and roll’s most influential artists and their performances – from iconic musicians to cutting-edge talent. It’s one of the most significant archives that documents the American culture and shares the Rock Hall’s mission of collecting, preserving and interpreting the rock and roll story.

Go behind the scenes of Austin City Limits with the people who create the show and the artists who bring it to life. Two once-in-a-lifetime discussions will be facilitated by Dr. Lauren Onkey, vice president of education and public programs at the Rock Hall:

11 a.m. CST / Noon ET The Story of ACL: Behind the Scenes with the People Who Create Austin City Limits A discussion among members of the Austin City Limits staff as they recount stories and ...

Over the weekend we commemorated the passing of a longtime member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Barry O’Brien was not a performer, producer or record executive. He was a Fan. I attended his memorial on Saturday at the Beachland Ballroom with hundreds of family and friends. We were honored that his widow Janis and daughter Kirin invited the Hall of Fame to participate in this celebration of Barry’s life. There are so many things in this world that divide us but music has this incredible power to unite us and to build up a strong sense of community.

Barry loved rock and roll music and was a strong supporter of our nonprofit mission. He was part of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Family—he was a longtime member of the Roll Hall and helped us to celebrate the opening of the Museum some 15 years ago. Just a few weeks ago he called us to reserve tickets to our upcoming Janis Joplin Tribute Event at Playhouse Square.

Passion for music connects many of us and we are honored to have been a part of Barry’s life and thrilled that he was part ...

This is the seventh clip in a series of eight interview audio clips with Springsteen.

In this section of my interview, Bruce Springsteen talks about his songwriting process. He describes songwriting as a “meditation,” adding that “it works best when you go into a light, trance-like situation.” Later in the interview, he calls it a “magic act”: “You literally pull something from thin air.” He adds that when he started out, his success-to-failure ratio was “five percent success to 95 percent failure.”

A significant portion of the Bruce exhibit at the Hall of Fame focuses on his songwriting. The first floor of the exhibit includes a songwriting notebook from his early band Steel Mill, as well as numerous lyric manuscripts from his first three albums. The second floor of the exhibit features one entire wall of lyric manuscripts, including his notebooks for Darkness on the Edge of Town, The River, Born in the U.S.A. and The Rising. It also features a table and chair. According to Bruce, he wrote many of his most famous songs while sitting at that table, which was in his house in New Jersey.

Many people are surprised when they learn that we teach all ages at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum – from toddlers to adults. As a Presidential

Fellow in Case Western Reserve University’s SAGES program (the Seminar Approach to General Education and Scholarship) I have been teaching Rock and Roll Hall of Fame courses to undergraduates for the last three years with topics such as “Writing Rock and Roll” and “Rock and Roll Subcultures.”

When I teach, I always try to lead students to that elusive “ah-ha” moment, when they begin to really understand why the subject matters. Last week in my college course “Electro Pop: The History of Popular Electronic Music,” the class had that kind of moment. Through our discussion of Luigi Russolo’s 1913 essay The Art of Noises students realized that electronic music allowed them to use any and all sounds. Because of this it gave each of them, regardless of their musical background, a chance to be composers. And that musicians and artists have been saying that since as early as 1913. Ah-ha.

Last year, Ted Ottaviano of the synth-pop band Book of Love contacted ...

This is the sixth clip in a series of eight interview audio clips with Springsteen that we will post over the next few weeks.

In this segment of my interview, Bruce Springsteen talks about the making of Born to Run. In short, when he had finished the album, he was not really happy with the results. “There was a sound I heard in my head that was not reproduceable,” he told me. By the time of the album’s 30th anniversary, however, Bruce had come around and appreciated the greatness of the album.

One section of the Rock Hall’s exhibit is devoted to Born to Run. It includes some of Bruce’s early notes about the album, which he refers to as “New Album #3.” He considered several other titles for the album, including Between Flesh. . .And Fantasy, A Love So Fine, Beyond the Palace, Of Love + Defiance and Gimme Action. His early track listing for the album included such titles as “Lonely Night at the Beach,” “Shootout in Chinatown,” “Born to Win” and “Thunderhill.” The exhibit also contains numerous handwritten drafts of the lyrics to “Born to Run,” as well ...

The Rock Hall Blog

This is where we will post insights from Rock Hall staff and guest writers about exhibits, events, concerts and more with an emphasis on lesser known facets of the Rock Hall. Consider this your backstage pass.